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Re: Smeg Dishwasher DW 1710E1
I made some progress with this and I just thought I would share – because I read some really interesting posts when trying to sort out this problem. I’ll just stress that I’m no pro, so please don’t assume that this is good advice.
As expected, I think I was asking too much with my previous questions – esp. since I revisited the guidance notes. However, I was able to get some very gratefully received advice from a professional. I guess the crux was that the main potential problem was making an adequate contact with the new connectors (ie wire to connector, rather than connector to block) – and that this might well have been the cause of the original problem. With this in mind, I stripped the new connectors I’d found, carefully cleaned up the charred wires and soldered the new connectors into place. It was fairly straightforward – but I think I might have been a little generous with the solder – it took longer to clean up the connectors that it did to make the contacts!
When I connected everything together, I was a bit worried about how closely everything was packed, so I wrapped the live and neutral suppressor connectors with a little insulating tape and positioned these on the terminals “closest together” (this will make sense to anybody looking at a Smeg terminal block). It all looked OK, so I gave it a go. I’m sure some of the more experienced and the moderators will laugh, but I was only happy to try a rinse at first, but no problems (this backs up Penguin’s experience about the problem not frying the control circuits). I then tried a proper wash – again, without a hitch. I have to admit that I took the cover off to check that everything looked in order before I took the time to refit the units, and I’m happy to report that it did. So it looks like the problem is fixed.
I just want to add that we considered replacing the machine – part of the door which houses the controls had a couple of cracks and the machine looked a bit sorry. So when I ordered the terminal block from UK Whitegoods, I got a replacement control panel as well. I also needed to get screwdriver bits for a tamper proof screw (“Security Set” from Screwfix). With that fitted, the machine looks like new. All in, the cost was less than sixty quid. I’m feeling that this site was a real find!
Re: Smeg Dishwasher DW 1710E1
OK, I’m armed with my new teminal block assembly and it was looking good. However, I now have a question which might fall foul of your restrictions. Maybe not, though, so here goes.
When I got to removing the old terminal block, I realised that the damage was worse than I’d thought. Although I could remove the earth connectors in good shape, the others are embedded in melted plastic. No probs, I thought, and managed to get some new connectors from a local garage – they seem to be of identical size. But I’m left with a couple of thought which are troubling me:
1. Are the connectors I got likely to be of the same spec as the originals? Bearing in mind that they were probably for use on car electrics.
2. The news ones are covered in plastic. I just assumed that I could cut that off (because the earth connectors are bare) – but then it dawned on me that the connectors on the live and neutral might not have been bare metal before everything melted. (The connector for the suppressor (?) on the neutral terminal does seem to be plastic coated.)
OK, just had another look at some more posts on here and am pretty sure that nobody will be able to answer this.
